"Canadians share in the global consensus that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures"

The 2009 Federal Budget of Canada was released on Tuesday, and was introduced as follows:

"The world is passing through an extraordinary time. Canadians share in the global consensus that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.

Budget 2009 will help Canada to meet the challenges of our times. It aims to protect our country from an immediate economic threat while providing the solutions we need to secure our long-term growth and prosperity."

I am concerned that the 'extraordinary measures' arising from this consensus are so narrowly targeted.

Basically, this article sums up the situation nicely as follows:
"...there are no fresh ideas about updating international trade rules, or how to help the world's one to two billion poorest. It is a domestically-focussed, Canadian macro-economic document, which is appropriate for the times, but breaks little new ground."

While it's true that the budget "meets our international obligations" - you have to be careful to define those obligations as to our G-20 colleagues and to other industrialized nations. The budget is quite clear on that point, and quite silent on our whatever obligations we may have outstanding to the other 60% or so of the world's population.

While I don't disagree that the Canadian government owes its citizens a good-faith effort to avert the potential impact of this recession domestically (and that such measures may indirectly benefit the entire global economy), I worry that we are turning our focus inward at the precise moment when we need most to be paying attention to the long-term, global consequences of the actions we take in the short-term to stave off disaster.

While it's true that "extraordinary times" are widely accepted to be "dangerous and uncertain times" in this case, I think that they can also be seen as a time of opportunity - with everything that has broken in the last 3 months, we are uniquely positioned to apply innovative solutions to deeply rooted and concerning challenges.

This budget is, I think, a fine example of one of the more tragic dilemmas of Western democracy. Elected by Canadian voters, the Canadian government is accountable to Canadians first and foremost, and so must put the interests of Canada ahead of all other considerations; this looks to be shaping up to be especially true in a post-1990s deficit situation. In extraordinary times, it seems, spending outside of the domestic market can only be justified if it directly benefits Canadian citizens.

I think, Canada, that we can do better than that. In the words of Lester B. Pearson (someone that I think our current leadership could learn a lot from):

"It would be especially tragic if the people who most cherish ideals of peace, who are most anxious for political cooperation on a wider than national scale, made the mistake of underestimating the pace of economic change in our modern world. "

(h/t to Embassy Magazine, the only online publisher currently paying attention to the the global part of the global financial crisis as it's playing out in Canada)